Your Monster is a 2024 film that had an incredibly modest box office take (grossing less than one million dollars), but is hoping to grow some teeth in the streaming market it was seemingly more made for. I rented it recently on Prime after having gotten it recommended to me from a few different sources.

It is the story of Laura, a young woman who is recovering from surgery after a cancer diagnosis. During her hospital stay, her longtime boyfriend, Jacob, dumps her, and she is forced to move back into her childhood home. While Jacob is peddling the Broadway musical he wrote for Laura to other actresses, she is reduced to recuperating all alone.

Or so she thinks, as she eventually discovers there is a ferocious monster living in her closet! When the two of them come face to face, he gives her an ultimatum: move out within two weeks so he can have his privacy back, or he will tear out her throat. 

Despondent over her lot in life and now having to share living space with an actual nightmare creature, Laura is forced to come to a lot of terms. 

TWO UPS AND TWO DOWNS

First Up – The three biggest actors of the movie—Melissa Barrera, Tommy Dewey, and Edmund Donovan—are all exceptional. The movie can certainly hang its hat on having these three fine actors as its leads, and it lets them do the heavy lifting and carry Your Monster across the finish line. 

Melissa Barrera is a known commodity. She has starred in big movies like the Scream franchise and Abigail. We have known she is talented for years at this point. So her starring role in this effort comes as little surprise. And it’s great to see her still getting work after Spyglass unjustly dumped her from the next Scream sequel. She will be fine without them, and likely needs that franchise less than it needs her.

Tommy Dewey stars as Monster, and he brings everything the role needs. He has the fierce presence and power and rage that a beastly creature should have, but in the movie’s more tender moments, when Monster and Laura are getting to know each other and sharing intimate moments, he excels there, too. He has a perfect level charm and passion in the role. And the way he can flip his switch and get from ferocity to vulnerability is impeccable.

Edmund Donovan has less to work with than the other two, and he mostly just plays the shitheel ex-boyfriend of Laura who betrayed her at her lowest moment. He is mostly here to be taken aback by Laura’s audacity to try out for the play he wrote for her, but he has one extremely powerful scene late where he goes full mega-villain and screams and threatens Laura behind there curtain of the show. He is defiant and vicious in that moment, and he really commands the camera. Great stuff.

Second Up – Your Monster is written and directed by Caroline Lindy, and the story takes such a simple idea–this girl does have and has always had an actual monster living in her closet–and does stuff with it you would never have suspected possible. It’s not an entirely brand new idea, I admit–The 1980’s Fred Savage vehicle Little Monsters does a kiddie-fied version of this tale to a degree–but it feels original enough in 2024 to be quite exciting.

And really, you can lose yourself from the premise of the movies because the whole story has real emotional depth to it. Laura’s relationship with Jacob and her purpose to reclaim the prize she was promised is an equally compelling story even without Monster. Every aspect of Lindy’s screenplay feels wholly realized and complete. That’s quite an achievement for a first time director. 

First Down – Laura’s cancer diagnosis and recovery ends up being a complete non-factor in the movie, and cancer feels like something that should be more relevant than what it is here. You could re-write the beginning of this movie to just be that Jacob dumps Laura for any reason under the sun, and nothing of note changes. It’s weird to include something as serious and compelling as cancer in your film and not really do anything with it.

There is a sequence late where we see Laura go in for bloodwork, and we think the cancer is going to return–I actually thought we were going to get a full-on reveal that the cancer was causing her to hallucinate Monster–but instead, she just gets a “you’re fully healed, yay!” from her doctor, and that’s the end of it. It’s… weird. Why even bother including any of this other than to give her a cancer-free happy ending? But then, why include the disease at all? And actually, given the final scenes of Your Monster, I’m not sure she has a happy ending either way. So I guess I’m just confused. 

Second Down – I will preface this Down by saying it wasn’t a Down for me, per se. But I want to talk about the musical moments in Your Monster for a bit. I actually had no idea there were going to be full-on songs in the third act of this flick before I came in. I just thought it was a charming horror-comedy about a young woman and her monster that lives in her closet. But there are actual musical sequences, especially late.

I could see this being a turn-off to folks who did not suspect them, as musicals are so wildly divisive. I know movie lovers who, the second something turns into a song-fest, they are out. I used to have that proclivity, but I’ve grown to actually kind of like the occasional song in my films. But! As noted, this is a Down because it’s an aspect of the flick that won’t be for everyone. 

OVERALL – 3.5 / 5

Your Monster is such a quality tale! I really had an absolute blast with this, mostly because the acting performances were so potent. And all the credit in the world to rookie writer-director Lindy for her efforts in bringing this all to life. It’s VERY light on the Horror as far as “horror-comedies” go, but it makes up for that with a strong story, some solid romance, and decent comedy.